some local coverage and welcome others to our live coverage. 5:00 p.m. here in the east. and that is the aerial picture of the aftermath earlier. this is what happened during the running of the boston marathon, at the finish line, about an hour after the top tier finishers. you see the smoke plume there from the first explosion, and there in the foreground the orange flame the moment of impact from a secondary explosion seconds later. it was instantly reminiscent of how a lot of bombings have been carried out overseas. a lot of bombings that have targeted our men and women in uniform. an initial explosion, a secondary explosion right at the moment people are running in to help. we have since learned of at

least a third explosive device, but it's been blown in place and disposed of in the city of boston. biggest day in the city of boston all year, always, patriots day, the boston marathon. this is videotape from the immediate aftermath. being told something -- okay. this is on the boston globe website. we knew this existed. it's just coming in. ground-level view. and then the second explosion to the left. and i'm being told the photographer of the video is on the phone with us. steve, can you hear me? >> yes, i can.

yes, brian. >> hey, steve. you were using a digital camera, just doing your job at the finish? >> yeah, was at the finish line getting the late runners coming across, much of those the charity runners, 2:50 p.m., at the finish line. things going along swimmingly, and then boom. we heard a loud explosion at boylston, about 15 yards from where i was, and smoke billowed straight up into the air. and me and the other photographers immediately ran over there. and within 20 seconds of that, as we were starting to get a grip on the scene, a second explosion went off in the next corner, boylston and fifth, apparently both devices were in trash cans, and they went off. it was carnage. we had a number of cuts and bruises, facial cuts. actually saw a man who lost part of his leg. and then, all of the folks from the marathon were treating the runners, obviously had to get called into action, scrambling

to treat people as quickly as they could. the police, the fire, everyone was scrambling through the chaotic scene, and the injuries were nothing short of horrific. >> steve, i keep returning to the image of the one older man with the red or orange shirt who stands out so much, because he was among the runners, the first to go down in the overhead view, right there in the foreground of the still picture. just such a tragic thing. he was so close to finishing the race, and as we keep pointing out all day, for nonmarathon runners, this is the achievement of a lifetime for so many people. >> yeah, and i can't even imagine what was happening further up the course. because we still had, you know, thousands of -- several thousand runners still to cross the line, the folks at the four-hour mark and beyond, and that's the bulk of the runners. they had to be corralled off

before they got to boylston street. everything turned quickly into a crime scene. we were all escorted out and we're in lockdown at the plaza hotel in the marathon media center. we can't move. so we're just following instructions now. you know, watching the news reports. >> steve, for folks watching around the country, i've been trying to figure out how to describe what this day is like every year in boston. it's almost like new year's eve in times square in broad daylight in terms of crowds and side streets being crowded, people packed into the bars, people in hotels. >> yeah, it's -- you know, my whole life, i've been living here since '85, and it's always been known as patriots day, the red sox playing at 11:00 last year when the temperatures were up in the 80s and a perfect day for the runners. about 40 degrees at the start. like you said, people have the day off. people are typically -- are kind of up on the sidewalk, and they were on there when the

explosives went off. just a horrific day. >> steve, thank you very much. i'm sorry for the occasion that brings you to us. we've been talking to the man who took what is now this sought-after web video from boston.com, just again calmly going about taking pictures of the runners at about the 4:09 finishing mark when all held broke loose across from the boston public library building there. bill bratton, former commissioner and for that matter new york and l.a., is over in london. boston native, watching and listening to all of this. commissioner bratton, what more can you add? you're now -- you've made your way to our london bureau. what more can youhis you've wat place? >> well, the location where the bombing occurred was probably about 25 to 50 yards from the

actual finish line. the bombing seems to have occurred based on the timing that you've identified an hour to two hours after the lead runner would have come across the finish line. good news about that, if that bombing had occurred at the time of the actual first runner, it would have been a lot more people in that area. but after two hours, the crowd has sort of dissipated. that bomb went off in front of a very -- i'm very familiar with that corner. there's a bank on that corner. exeter and boylston and worked it as a police officer, sergeant, lieutenant, sergeant lieutenant and as a police commissioner. for me, it's horrific. i had relatives running in that event. it was really just both shocked and concerned when i first heard on it. >> and, commissioner, i mean, it's been described that that side of boylston, as opposed to the risers, the kind of -- >> the viewing bleachers.

>> yeah. -- have more kind of public access. it's hard to navigate the streets along the end of the route on this day every year. but i guess more of a possibility of some movement among pedestrians along that stretch. >> right. that area, looking at it, would probably have been a restricted area. you have bleachers on one side of the street, opposite the side of the street where the bombs apparently went off. but that block, the block contains, if you will, the press stand that goes across the street. that would normally be a restricted area. it would not be open to the general public. but again, as i mentioned, two hours before when the actual race came to an end with the first runner, it would have been more crowded than it was at the time of the actual event. that's the good news. the location of the bombing was probably intended, also, for maximum visibility of the media. because that literally is 25 to

50 yards from where cameras from all over the world are positioned to record that race. >> and what do you think is the level of security? if somebody wishing to bring a parcel like that -- and i've heard more than one person now say that it was in a trash receptacle. based on what you nodknow, woul they be encountered -- would there be dogs as they came onto that block? >> well, the normal procedures -- and i'm sure the boston police commissioner of the day will be speaking specifically to the security procedures. normal procedures would be dogs. would be, in some instances, magnetometers, and very sizable police presence along the route. as to the specificity, some of which i'll be able to speak to, other aspects i won't talk to or talk about, that that portion of

the event would have been the most highly secured locations of the event. it's the finish line. it's within 25, 50 yards of the finish line. it will be interesting over the next several days to hear what, in fact, occurred, that a device was apparently left or planted in that location. >> and the good news, commissioner, we will have -- i am guessing -- several different surveillance camera angles of this parcel and presumably the human who deposited it there. >> well, the good news is that there's a bank there -- i'm very familiar with that area. i'm there all the time when i go to boston. there will undoubtedly be surveillance cameras. also heavy reportage around that area before the event. so maybe some news cameras may have picked up additional information. the police will certainly be seeking to get any video whatsoever that might pertain to that particular location. >> commissioner bratton, thank

you. we ask that as you learn things, please pass along information to us. bill bratton in our london bureau tonight. pete williams, our justice correspondent, continues to make calls and report this story out from our washington bureau. pete, what do you have? >> reporter: well, i was struck by what the police commissioner said about urging people to stay home. the fact that there seemed to be at least as far as his information goes two separate incidents and two separate places in boston. one at the scene of the marathon, the other at the jfk library. and we also have seen a number of local communities raise their sort of alert level, putting more people on the street. and i'm assured, though, by a couple of federal officials that i've talked to that they're not -- this is not happening because of some additional information that something else is going on that we don't know about. that these -- that the department of homeland security, for example, an official there

tells me it has not put out any kind of an advisory urging local communities to be on a higher level of alert. that what we're seeing around town or around the country, here in washington, around town, and around the country -- new york, other cities taking precautions -- is entirely driven internally, their own decisions to raise their level of security based on what they and the rest of us can see happening in boston, on the concern that if somebody is doing it there, somebody else may be trying to do it somewhere else. there are lots of unconfirmed reports, brian, we're trying to nail down. there's all sorts of conflicting information on whether there is or is not an arrest here. we don't know that for certain. but all we know for certain is what the police commissioner has said, and what we're told is that the additional security around the country is simply based on local police commissioners, their equivalent of the one we just saw, making this decision on their own. >> pete, it's bad enough, however, to listen to the

governor say "stay home and avoid crowds and, in effect, shelter in place." >> reporter: right. that's what led me to wonder whether there was something larger at play here. but i'm told that as far as the people i've talked to is the answer to that is, no. i think the reason they're saying that in boston is, they still are not confident that they have their arms around exactly what happened here. different incidents in different places of town, that raises the level of concern about whether there could be some place else that they don't know of yet. >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: so until they can get a picture of what happened here, until they can reassure themselves that they have nailed this down and know the two ends of the bookends here, i think that's why they're saying that. >> okay, pete. i want to back up. we keep going by these photos -- they go by us unreferenced. we have pictures from the jfk library, those who visited, know

it's a beautiful spot out on the water. the president's boat, in fact, is part of the display in the sloping front lawn. you see boston pd -- boston fire unit outside. but then, this next picture shows the char of black smoke out of the entrance. and we just -- this is the subject of differing reports and much speculation. we heard the police chief himself say "we had a third explosion at the kennedy library." but all afternoon, during our coverage, we were aware of what was called an electrical fire in the equipment room out there. so we're going on this explosion notion based on the word of the police commissioner, city of boston. but that is one wing -- actually, the new wing of the jfk library. i want to bring in david able.

he was among the witnesses we have lined up to talk to us on the phone. david, where were you? you're with the "boston globe," i should point out. where were you when this happened? what did you see? >> so i was standing on the finish line, taking videos of runners coming in when the bl t blast -- the first blast occurred about 10 feet from where i was standing. i saw a large plume of white smoke, and then a few moments later, there was a second blast. and what i and other people that were right there realized what was going on, we saw what was essentially a pile of bodies. we saw a lot of horrific things, the worst things i've ever seen as a journalist. we saw a lot of blood, a lot of

shattered glass. i still can't get the image of a woman was clearly not breathing with her eyes open, staring straight up at the sky. >> david, this is, you know, all of us who've been overseas in war zones, these injuries are going to be absolutely consistent with the urban explosions we've seen in baghdad, in kabul, and certainly this methodology -- an initial explosion and a secondary -- is familiar to all those who have fought wars overseas. it's unbelievable. >> yeah. it is definitely frightening. at first, we were stunned by the explosion, weren't sure what was happening. a lot of people were thinking, as often is the case with explosions, that it was, like, a firework perhaps, a celebratory

gun salute for the finishing runners. and it -- the contrast is really jarring, because you had this moment of great lift and celebration of runners just making it across the distance of the marathon, and then suddenly everything changed. >> you're not the first person to say, and it's completely understandable, like a starting cannon in a sailboat race, that this was your initial -- who's thinking terrorism at the finish line of the boston marathon, for goodness sake? that it was a planned outburst of some sort. >> i think as soon as i heard -- and anyone else who heard the second explosion -- we knew immediately, like, when we saw the second plane hit the second tower of the world trade center, when you immediately knew this was premeditated, that this was a terrorist attack.

>> yeah, that exact same thing occurred to me, that when one thing happens, it could be a gas line, it could be quote/unquote natural occurrence in a big city. when the second one happens 20 seconds later, it's a good bit likely that this is an attack. david abel, thank you very much. i'm sorry for what you've been through. thank you very much for calmly reporting on it for us on live television. mike kapos is another eyewitness who was there. mike, what did you see? >> hi, brian. i was actually at a restaurant called town at the top level with a lot of windows, about 100 yards from the finish line. kind of felt the first explosion. everyone was a little rattled. and the second explosion happened, and from the windows

literally just saw a sea of people sprinting away from where it happened. just a complete mob scene, running in the other direction. >> mike, are you a bostonian? >> i've lived in boston for about six years. originally from rhode island. >> i was thinking today about the ben affleck movie, "the town," and how the plotline to a lot of people might have been outlandish. they were going to rob fenway park, and kind of the most unbelievable plot line you can imagine in boston. except for this today. no one would believe explosions at the finish line of the boston marathon. it's hard to describe the kind of citywide party atmosphere one day a year in that city. >> yeah. i mean, it's -- it is unbelievable. i mean, i celebrated the marathon for the last, you know, six years here.

and just the shear panic in people's faces. i currently have a friend, cory griffin's condo, and we've taken in people from abroad, people from london are here. you know, just giving them a place to charge their phones and make calls. we have people from california and chicago. and it's just -- it's very chaotic, and, frankly, very scary. >> and, mike, also, it's hard to overestimate the kind of number of people per runner who are in town. you know, if you've been training in oklahoma city, if that's where you live, to come run the boston marathon, your support group is probably with you on the trip. and you've saved up for airfare and a hotel room or two. and this is such a big day. all those people from all different countries are crowded into the boston metropolitan area today. >> yeah. i mean, i know people that are

from all over the place that are here today. you know, a lot of people are asking where to go. you know, going back to your hotel is -- is -- it doesn't seem to be the safest place. but that's where they're telling everyone to go, go back home, go back to your hotel, or get out of the city. i mean, it's a scary place right now. >> and at the same time, avoid crowds, which is not -- >> right. >> -- easy to do on marathon day, patriots day in boston. mike kapos, thank you very much for being with us. thanks to all of you are -- all of our eyewitnesses who have so calmly described this horrible thing that will leave so many people who just were in the vicinity no shock as a result. just to update you on the latest figures. just in to us from the "boston globe," more than 100 people have been treated. and, thankfully, that also can be injuries that in the scope of

things today have to be called quite minor. if you were in that vicinity, in the blast shield area, and escaped with, you know, a piece of shrapnel, given how fiendish and awful this is, you would be considered among the lucky. this is boston general, the e.r. entrance. and you see people running around with the foil blankets to retain the body heat for marathon finishers, we're all very familiar with, having seen them on tv. patients are coming in wrapped in them as blankets. but again, this happened next to what we heard the whdh reporter describe as the biggest emergency room in boston on this day every year. it's set up to give emergency, triage assistance to marathon runners.

this, again, is the video from the "boston globe" website. we just spoke to the photographer who took it, and you have the first explosion and then to the left, seconds later, you hear the dull roar of the second explosion. all of it taking place at the finish line. as former boston police commissioner bill bratton pointed out, at least it didn't happen at the very moment of finish, as you would have even more people crowded in there. we haven't done this in a while. let's listen in to our coverage over these pictures on whdh, our nbc station, as they search for more explosives in boston. >> -- able to detonate that with a controlled blast. this is what they've been doing. in fact, a lot of our crews out there, janet wu saw a number of officers and investigators going up and down the streets, looking for what else might be out there. >> we'll stay on top of this. for now, we mentioned earlier, that our colleague, steven

cooper, he always runs the marathon and nothing different this year. he ran it again. he joins us here in the newsroom, fresh off the streets. coop, you have the floor. tell us what happened, what you experienced, what you saw. >> well, we basically -- it was like any other marathon. this was my eighth year in a row that i ran the boston marathon. we were coming sort of into the homestretch, so to speak, so for all of us, thousands of runners, that sort of come through kenmore square and headed under the bridge to mare the make the turn down boylston. -- they will reschedule that as the city and authorities from the fbi to the atf -- >> we seem to have had our audio lines crossed as this reporter for our nbc station was recounting his run today in the boston marathon. someone else raised this issue.

remember, at the time of the blast, boylston was then shut down, because huh wouyou had wo runners, wounded onlookers, wounded public safety folks, and a cordon was put up. all these runners are under way at speed for the remaining length of the 26.2 miles. this happened, as far as we can tell, around the 4:09 mark. the finishers who had just gotten across will get their 4:09 certificates. but before that, you have miles of runners, thousands of runners yet to cross the finish line. and you can almost start to see the makings of the backup if you look down boylston. let's go to chuck todd at the white house, and, chuck, we've been talking to you mostly about the precautions security-wise at the white house. of course, the broader story is the president getting briefed on

this. whatever decisions the president chooses to make, we do know he called governor patrick right before that briefing. >> reporter: right. he's now gotten two additional briefings since then, one from the fbi director, robert mueller, and one from the homeland security secretary, janet napolitano. and so, he continues to be in receive mode. i can tell you that the way these situations work, literally you have a group of analysts that are in the situation room -- a lot of the national security aides, particularly the chief terrorism adviser, will be getting a lot of the reports through there, and they use that room for obvious reasons. it's a secure room, and it's where they have all of this intelligence coming in, and to use that as well to brief the president. so right now, he continues to do that. as you reported, he made phone calls. we do know that the joint terrorism task force has been activated between federal, state, and local in massachusetts. and obviously, with what we're seeing here, with the many

low-grade lockdowns, taking place here, as far as who can come and go into the white house complex, and people being -- particularly tourists -- being held off onto the other side of pennsylvania avenue. and we see plenty of uniformed secret service standing guard, and now vehicles going up and down just to make sure folks aren't loitering around. >> and, chuck, for what it's worth, now the boston police department is backtracking a little bit back to what we thought was the case before that briefing. this gets confusing. we heard the boston police commissioner say there had been a third explosion. he indicated it was related to all of this at the jfk presidential library. boston pd, through its twitter account, is now saying, "update, jfk incident, meaning john f. kennedy library, appears fire-related." which is what we made of it all afternoon. so it's not consistent with an

explosion related to this, which is good. because we've got enough problems in central boston. >> reporter: no, that's right. and i know that the jfk library itself just put out a statement saying every -- all aspects of the idea it's connected is speculation, and they didn't want to go from there. so we're in that mode where there's a lot of -- a lot of tidbits and not a lot of confirmation. and that's what the white house is trying to sort through in dealing with all of the various incoming that they have in, and trying to be careful -- we know others have not been as careful -- but be careful what comes from a government official. >> no, yeah, that's right. chuck, as you've been speaking, the white house has released a still photo of the president with two national security aides, dennis mcdonough, nearest the camera there, and also on the phone at the time he received his briefing on this,

obviously in the oval office. jim miklaszewski reporting from the pentagon. officials tell nbc news there is no information to indicate there are any additional threats following this explosion. this is also a point pete williams made earlier. in effect, you could learn of a lot of precautions being taken, especially in major east coast cities. it does not mean they're happening as a result of any additional threats. and, chuck, we can't point that out often enough. >> reporter: well, and, brian, i had a security official tell me that had there been warnings in advance, that you would have had a different style of security at the boston -- yes, there was plenty of security, because it's a major event going on on a big day in boston. but there wasn't the type of early warnings you would have seen a difference in the style of security that boston would have been going through had they had some sort of advanced

warning or threat had come in. >> chuck todd at the white house. thanks. i mentioned boston mayor tom menino earlier. you perhaps heard governor patrick say that he started his day by visiting the boston mayor in his hospital room. well, there turned out to be no keeping mayor menino down. even though he was in the hospital being treated for a broken leg, even though he has had so many health challenges just since this past winter, including diagnosis of diabetes, and he had some heart trouble, he has decided not to run for re-election, he is, however, the longest-serving mayor in the modern history of boston. he is the number-one booster of that city in this event. he apparently will bring this to you live when this happens, heading toward the microphones to give his own press briefing. and generally just say to the people of boston, "we'll get

through this." dean walker, who has been really helpful to us, is part of the universal sports -- another arm of this company -- universal sports network coverage, up there in a production trailer not far from the finish line. if you'd been watching our live coverage, dean heard the first concussion and saw the second. and, dean, right now in that city, with the "t," the subway shut down and so many streets for such a wide area being shut down, it just must be -- the governor's warning to people to stay in place, stay home, they must have no other choice. >> it's very true, because the area that the marathon that was running has been evacuated for quite a wide radius. and back where we are at our hotel, there's a large crowd of people in the lobby, because they just have no place else to go right now. and a lot of family members are concerned, because, you know, at

the time that this happened, there was still another two hours for the runners to be able to complete the course. so a lot of runners were still on the course when the explosions happened. and so, the family members at this point don't really know where their family is, because of the fact there's very -- there's sparce cell phone connections and texting. a lot of the runners weren't carrying their cell phones, so some family members are concerned. >> and, dean, the other odd part is, people are being told to avoid crowds. on this day in boston, if you're outside the perimeter area where pedestrian traffic is allowed, to your point, you've got a race stretched through the city that kind of stopped in place. and i guess somehow they will figure out a system of finishers, where people were running. you've got 26,000 just runners,

and then there must be a two-person-per-runner support staff average. it must be absolute gridlock in some parts of that city. >> well, absolutely. and especially with the family members that are here. i have been speaking to, you know, people from australia, people from france, people from russia who have come here to run the marathon. because, you know, running the boston marathon is such a tremendous achievement for many runners, because it's the only marathon that you run in that you have to qualify for. and so, those 27,000 people running in this event train very hard and very diligently just to qualify for this marathon. then even come here and run it is such an honor. yeah, so a lot of times they do bring a lot of their family and friends here to be able to watch them do it, because it is such a historic -- personal historic event for them. >> how long do you think the

lockdown -- and by that, i mean if you're in a hotel, if you're in an apartment in the prohibited zone, you're going to be there for a while, you think tonight maybe people might be able to move around? we heard of a ground hold at logan, so people with flight reservations may be in some trouble. there's no roadmap for this. >> yeah, it's a very difficult question to answer, because the fact that we were immediately after the blast, we were evacuated to the fairmont copley hotel. and by the time we got over there, they weren't allowing anybody else in or out of that hotel, because of the large mass of people inside. so that point is, when we decided to return to our own hotel, but making a very wide circle around the explosion area. >> and, dean, the coverage was

probably we've decided, what, 4:09 mark, puts it an hour after the elite top tier, two hours now after the elite top tier finishers of the race? for people not familiar with the race, can you define -- we keep hearing these were charity runners at this point in the race, around the four-hour mark. what does that mean? >> well, it could -- it still is most likely these were a lot of qualified runners. not the charity runners. because when the marathon takes off -- because there is 27,000 people -- they release them in waves. and that way the start area is not congested, because if you send everybody at the same time, it would be a very hard situation for the runners to go through. so you wouldn't know if the race -- the elite took off at 10:00 a.m. eastern. the runners behind them

sometimes take over an hour or more to get up to the start line to start their own race. >> okay, got it. dean walker, universal sports. he's been very helpful to us today. he did not anticipate getting to do this today. he was simply in boston as part of universal sports' coverage of the boston marathon. we keep looking at this video of the emergency entrance at boston general. these are -- you see the silver blankets we've become familiar with seeing them in marathon races over the years, being used just as triage blankets to keep people warm as they were transported. every boston ems rig, all boston fire, boston p.d., all leaves cancelled, all shifts reporting to work. we've treated 100 people at hospitals so far.

last death toll we had was three. and the last official -- the official number of injured has not agreed with the number of treated. so we're going loosely on that. but it's the "boston globe" reporting 100 treated so far. 5:36 p.m. here in new york. and to our north, an american tragedy at a great american tradition, the boston marathon. this is the view of it as taken from the camera platform high above the finish line in yellow there in the foreground. one explosion, and then between 15 and 20 seconds later -- and we'll time it out with more specificity -- a second explosion, a distance away. we have pursued all possibilities that this was

perhaps -- you see now the version from boston.com, the "boston globe's" video arm on the web. we have pursued all possibilities that this was perhaps an underground gas explosion in an urban area. it just made -- would have been a little bit too much of a coincidence for this to have happened at the finish line of the boston marathon. the toll of dead and injured has been steadily climbing. the next briefing will be at 7:00 p.m. in the city of boston. we will, however, be hearing from mayor tom menino, who has left his hospital room. he's been treated for complications from a broken leg, will be talking to the media on this extraordinary day for his beloved city. pete williams, our justice correspondent, has been working all of his sources in washington on this story since first word arrived of these dual

concussions in boston. pete, what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, it seems clear now that they're still -- the authorities are still looking at packages that they find along the street of the parade route -- or rather, the marathon route in boston. and if they can't resolve them immediately just by looking at them, they're destroying them. so we only know for certain, brian, at this point of two explosive devices. the two that went off, that have been causing all of the injur s injuries, and what we know of the two fatalities so far. as you've been reporting, the possible third one at the jfk library turns out to be some understandable confusion in the chaos here. it was not an explosive device. they are -- authorities are looking at and destroying several others. but it's not clear to us that they're destroying them because they know they're explosive devices, or simply because, you know, they just don't want to take the chance to use the vernacular, they just don't want

to screw around with it, and if there's any doubt, they're going to blow it up. we only know of two so far. and there have also been -- there's many rumors, as you can understand. one was that the cell phone service had been shut down because of the thought that possibly these devices -- or a fear, a concern -- that the devices might have been set off remotely by cell phone, which is a common technique around the country -- around the world, as well. but we haven't found any government official to confirm this. and we know that some cell calls are getting through, and one law enforcement official says it could be simply a matter that the system is overloaded, brian. >> also, pete, it's not giving away the nation's secrets. it's been written about. there's technology exists that was developed after the start of the war in iraq that can go out on ahead of a vehicle and detonate by kind of sending a pulse out on all-known frequencies, attempt to detonate

explosives that may be along a parade route like this one. >> reporter: yes, and there are also devices -- and this has also been written about -- that are commonly used when high-profile people are traveling around, that can follow vehicles and sort of temporarily shut the cell service down in a small area. i've not heard before the government, either local or federal, asking the phone company to shut down all cell service in an area, because, of course, the cell phones are also being used by first responders. yes, they have their own radio systems and their own communication systems, but they also use cell phones a lot. so that would be a consequential decision to do that. >> and as pete points out, this conflicting report about the jfk library, a good distance away, they did have a fire. it does not appear, based on all

available information, to have been an explosion per se. it is certainly not associated or tied with the kind of explosions we've seen on boylston today at -- >> reporter: and, brian? >> yes, pete. >> reporter: as we're talking, at&t has just issued a statement saying that customers may be experiencing issues with the cell service because of congestion. and they recommend that they use text messaging for emergencies. so they say "our temporary wi-fi turned up for boston marathon will remain on for an extended time." so this seems to be the opposite of the suggestion that they were turning things off. >> okay. we just offered a google earth map there for folks, the basic outlines. you see the presidential library down at the far right-hand corner. the finish line upper left. and then to the upper right is

boston logan airport, for those who've travelled into and out of boston. we have this from the tom kenny, 43-year-old army vet, recently returned from afghanistan, had just finished running in the marathon today.as about 50 feet. i had just crossed the finish line. we were entering the recovery area when the first explosion went off. we heard the noise. we felt a little bit of the percussion wave. it sounded like an i.e. d. that was the first reaction i had. that is actually the definition of the type of device that it is feared and suspected was set off today, pete, whether it's in a military or civilian setting. >> reporter: well, that's right. and, i mean, you know, there's a lot of sort of informed speculation going on about the nature of the strength or size of these devices and what they might be composed of. i have not -- the federal officials i've talked to have

not seen any kind of definitive information on what these devices were, whether they were pipe bombs, what the explosive was. but there's a lot of sort of armchair analysis based simply on what can be seen and heard. the size of that picture there, the white smoke suggests perhaps a commonly used high explosive in a lot of terror bombs. but then, on the other hand is despite the number of injuries here, the relatively low strength of these devices in terms of what they might have been for a relatively small package. not a lot of structural damage to the buildings that are adjacent there. so, i mean, i guess it goes without saying here that if -- that this could be a lot worse, why these devices were composed the way they were, you know, was it a last-minute thing? could they have made it bigger? who knows? but that's just sort of informed speculation based on -- people

who know about explosives, watching the same scenes we are. >> pete, what -- just to let the folks know -- what kinds of federal agencies have offices in boston? what kinds will be en route to boston from washington? >> reporter: well, the fbi and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms and explosives have offices there. and they are on the scene. in addition, they're both sending additional technicians to help with the investigation. they'll be the primary investigating agencies that will respond. of course, homeland security has people there, as well. but in terms of the initial response and explosives, investigating, and interviewing the witnesses and helping the boston police with this, those are the ones who will be in charge. >> pete williams, thanks. those viewers just joining us, we've had a terrible chain of veents -- events on what is usually the happiest and biggest day every year in the city of boston. patriots day, the boston marathon.

here's what happened, the first of two explosions. as you see there, the finish line is just in the foreground of this picture at the 4:09 mark after the start. after the elite first-tier finishers had gone through. to set the scene for you, 5:45 now as we say this. at 6:10 eastern time, the president is going to address the nation about what has happened in boston today. this is the ground view of that explosion, from the "boston globe" website, boston.com. we will have the president's remarks live, obviously. we will have a special one-hour edition of "nbc nightly news" tonight. and then we will be back on the air with a prime-time special, 10:00 p.m. tonight, 7:00 on the west coast, on what we have witnessed, and hopefully, we will know more by then. certainly what appear now to be

two planned explosions, two devices that were set there and set off for the finish of the boston marathon in boston. they have discovered and exploded at least one subsequent, one other device. we have just witnessed a moment of silence in the house of representatives. we have another eyewitness, dan mccurio. dan, i understand you will probably show up in some of the video of the finishers, because you had just passed by where we see the camera location, had just finished the race when the explosion went off? >> i had finished about 10 or 15 seconds before it went off. >> and tell us what you witnessed. i imagine you reacted with a start, looked back over your shoulder, and saw a plume of smoke? >> exactly. yeah, it was -- it was kind of unbelievable. i had finished with a friend of mine that i was running with.

and we had literally just -- it felt like we had just gotten over the finish line, and people were congratulating us. and all of a sudden, you just heard something rock the entire ground. i mean, the ground was shaking. and we turned around and saw the thick, gray smoke kind of billow out from this area where there were quite a few people standing. and before we had time to really digest what was happening, the second one went off. and that's when we realized that, you know, there was something seriously wrong, and we got out of there as fast as we could. >> dan, can you understand the folks who said they thought it was, you know, initially, they thought it was a finishing cannon of some sort? they thought it was something planned. >> yeah, it -- you could have thought that if you had been further away. from where i was standing, the way the smoke was, and how loud it was, you could tell it was something way more severe than that. it was definitely some kind of bomb-type of device. i mean, it was pretty evident from where i was.

>> what do you think happened up the route? what -- is there a way of saying, in your view, what percentage of marathon runners, of the 26,000, 27,000 of you, had passed the finish line at the 4:09 mark? and what percentage remained strung out along the route under way at that speed? >> yeah, i would say a little bit more than half of the runners were done at that point. but there were still a large amount of runners that were just turning the corner. i mean, it was -- you know, kind of the middle of the pack. >> where are you now? what have you been told? and what does it feel like in boston right now? >> it's just -- everyone's in a state of utter shock right now and disbelief. i ran the marathon last year, and it's literally, you know, the best day of the year in the city. and everybody is just absolutely stunned. we've been told nothing. i'm in my apartment now in boston. i was able to walk home. but all of the police have been patrolling and telling everyone

to stay inside, and not to leave until, you know, until you hear anything else. it's been just -- just devastating, really. i mean, it's really unbelievable. >> and, dan, of course, among marathon runners, there's kind of a -- almost fewer than six degrees of separation. you get to know the people around you. you sometimes -- a lot of people run with a buddy, they train with a buddy, they know other people in the race. >> yeah. >> so there's going to be that inevitable search for information. people starting numbers, finishing numbers, wanting to know if everybody made it out okay. >> absolutely, yeah. i mean, there was a lot -- a lot of crying where we were. people trying to find loved ones and people that were, you know, finishing the race behind us. i actually -- my best friend was two minutes behind me. and i luckily found him about half an hour later. he was turning the corner at the second explosion was happening, and had the wherewithal to run the other way. but, i mean, i couldn't even

imagine that it would be this state of panic for a while here. >> just the video as it comes in, as you know, boston at all, and you know the streets at all, seeing them with yellow tape, what mike lupika said earlier, just one of the great walking cities in this country. you have newbury street right nearby. this is a terrific, beautiful urban area. and on this day of all days? >> it's hard to believe. it really is. i mean, this day, in particular, and then we had great weather today for a marathon. you know, there were hundreds -- hundreds and hundreds of people just in that area of the finish line alone. but people trailing the course the entire 26 miles. it's what makes part -- part of the reason what makes boston unique. you get people alongside of you the entire way cheering you on. so, i mean, this is devastating. >> dan mccurio, thank you for being with us, after what you

witnessed. congratulations for you on finishing the marathon, which -- >> thank you. >> -- an achievement. i imagine people will kind of quickly forget about it despite all it represents today, because of what this day will now stand for. the rest of the history of this great race. alicia lane is with us from knbc tv, but today finds her in boston. you're in a hotel. what have you witnessed there today? >> i'm no longer in a hotel actually, brian. we were in the lennox hotel, which was about 150 feet from where the two bombs exploded. at the time. i'm here to see my best friend to run the race. she had already made it through. i got with her. we were waiting for her in a hotel/restaurant. that was when we were sitting right next to the window. this massive explosion occurred. and we felt it. we saw smoke. then another one about 10 seconds later went off. and everybody in the restaurant panicked. there were people running and screaming.

and clearly no one knew what was going on. it was terrifying, frankly. and so, we all moved to the back of the restaurant. we were trying to find out what had taken place. obviously, everyone was frightened and trying to find their loved ones, trying to make phone calls. then the boston pd came in a short while later, told us to turn off our cell phones, all of our devices, because they thought it could perhaps detonate another bomb. and at that point, everyone was just inside watching the news, and i had no access to anything. i couldn't move in or out of the hotel. no one could get in. at which point, they came back in a short while later and ushered us all out. they evacuated our hotel. i've been out of my hotel since shortly after the bombs exploded. >> and does it feel like a bit of a lockdown there? i heard the governor say stay where you are, but also avoid crowds. of course, there's no way to

move traditionally on this day in boston without being in the thick of a crowd. >> yeah, it's really difficult. when we were first ushered out of the hotel, the streets were flooded with people. just flooded. everyone just walking aimlessly, not knowing really where to go. up until about an hour ago, it remained that way. that's when the governor and when the police commissioner d had, you know, issued the command for everyone to clear the roadways and get out of the streets, and also the police on the roads were telling us the same, because they didn't want anybody congregated in large groups. and so, it's very strange. it's actually quiet right now. there are a lot of people walking the streets. but there are no longer crowds anywhere. there are a lot of police personnel we've seen. we've seen tons of ambulances. in fact, there were about 20 lined up on one of the streets we passed by. i asked the gentleman inside why they were lined up like that. he said they were there for triage purposes, because of the explosions. which, you know -- >> yeah. well, we've been saying --

alicia, there's one silver lining, and that is the number of medical professionals who are at the finish line anyway. >> right. >> for race day. almost a thousand of them to treat, you know, blisters. to treat exhaustion. dehydration. sadly, some of them were probably going to end up being hit by shrapnel along with some of the cops and race volunteers, but at least triage happened quickly, and there were ambulances for the end of the race as there always is. so transport happened faster than possible. so we have to cling to whatever good news we have. >> right. and i also spoke with two women who volunteer nurses in that emergency unit at the end of the finish line. i spoke with them both in depth about what they saw and what they experienced. they said it was very methodical, very organized. everyone worked together very well. one of the women i spoke with, one of the rns, told me that one of the deceased was an elderly woman. and that the injuries that were

suffered were really life-altering. limbs lost. down to -- >> we've lost our -- >> -- explosion happened on boylston street -- [ inaudible ] -- public safety officials are working together on the issue. the governor and i, a half hour ago -- to start the investigation. i offer my condolences and prayers to the families involved in this explosion. there is a hotline, 634-4500 if they need information over the next 24 to 48 hours. let me just say that this is a tragedy and we're going to work

together on this, and the boston police, the state police, fbi, all of the agencies just met, are committed to working together to make sure we come to a finality of what happened this afternoon, and the governor has been very helpful to us on some of the issues this afternoon. i'll turn it over to the governor. >> thanks, mr. mayor. and thanks so much for coming out today. obviously, we all send out our condolences to the victims and their families. we are asking everybody to stay out of the perimeter of the explosion. about a 15-block area. we're told by the state police that is a crime scene right now. it's very, very important, helping people do their jobs, for people to stay out of that area. we said earlier it's probably best that most people make their way calmly home. if they're visiting the city, back to their hotel.

the commissioner has prioritized security at the hotels just for everyone's peace of mind. we are working on a -- i guess the term we're using -- a drop-in center in the city so that people who are trying to find runners, family members who didn't meet at the usual meet-up place because the race was cut short, will be in a position to announce that we hope very shortly. give people some assistance to help find their loved ones. i really am grateful that all of the federal, state, and local law enforcement officials are coordinating so closely and so well. they are talking constantly. they're all in investigation mode right now, a very serious time. we do need people to stay out of the area of the explosion.

>> i'd like to clarify one statement. the device at the jfk library was actually an incendiary device or a fire. we haven't linked that directly to this incident. right now, this incident consists of two explosions that occurred on boylston street. the information that we got about 15 minutes before the prior press conference could very well be premature. but we are still asking people to be calm, to go to their homes, and to work closely with us. if they have information, 800-494-tips. as the governor said, the area, about a 15-block area around the blast site, will be closed down for the next 24 hours and maybe further than that. people should be aware of that when they make plans for tomorrow. >> is there any security footage of any of the explosions? >> we are looking at a of that right now. that's one of the investigative steps we have taken.

>> -- doing drills this morning for the same exact thing that happened -- ahead of time, that this was going to take place? >> as i said earlier, there was no specific intelligence. all of the things happen in preparation for the event. there was no specific intelligence that anything was going to happen. >> -- type of device? do you have any idea what type of device -- >> at this point in time, it's too early to get into the specifics.